2008年10月16日 星期四

Summary of Online Learning Tools

Summary
Online learning tools
There are both advantages and disadvantages of online learning tools. We are in a whole new era of learning where everything is available on the internet. Although it is a rich source of knowledge, online learning is not for everyone.

Advantages of Online CoursesOnline courses are a form of distance learning. These online learning tools are portable and available where people are. Student can access an online learning tools at the time and place that is most convenient to them.

Another advantage of online learning is that student can go at their own pace. Whether he/she is busy or not, or they need more time to learn a particular concept, or they want to accelerate through the material, online learning offers the flexibility they need.

Typically, online courses are structured for real world learning. That makes it easier for most people to learn the material and helps student to apply the material in the real world. They can learn what they want to learn.Also, online learning tools save money and time.

Disadvantages of Online CoursesOnline learning has some disadvantages, too. Some people learn better in a traditional classroom. They need the live interaction with a teacher and other students.

Online classes may try to simulate classroom interaction, but they cannot duplicate it.In order to succeed at online learning, student have to have some specific skills. They have to be self-motivated, responsible for their own learning and have good time management skills. If they don't have those skills, traditional classes may be a better choice for them.

One huge disadvantage of online courses is not everyone has ready access to a computer with an internet connection. Without that access, online learning is hard to start.

Online education is so portable and flexible for so many people that it's easy to miss the disadvantages. If online education were the best choice for every person every time, we wouldn't need brick-and-mortar schools, would we? There are both advantages and disadvantages of online courses.

Review of Online Learning Tools

ThinkQuest
ThinkQuest is an online program that challenges students to develop educational Web sites for K-12 curriculum. Students can win great prizes for themselves and their school. The ThinkQuest resources featured in RTEC Teacher represent only a small portion of the many great educational resources developed by students available at the ThinkQuest Library of Entries. Teachers are encouraged to inform their students of this opportunity and to encourage them to enter the ThinkQuest challenge.

Rubric A rubric for a multimedia project will list the things the student must have included to receive a certain score or rating. Rubrics help the student figure out how their project will be evaluated Rubrics can help students and teachers define "quality". Rubrics can also help students judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments.


BrainStroming Tools
Brainstorming is a useful and popular tool that you can use to develop highly creative solutions to a problem. It is particularly helpful when you need to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things. This can be when you need to develop new opportunities, where you want to improve the service that you offer, or when existing approaches just aren't giving you the results you want. Used with your team, it helps you bring the experience of all team members into play during problem solving. This increases the richness of solutions explored (meaning that you can find better solutions to the problems you face, and make better decisions.) It can also help you get buy in from team members for the solution chosen - after all, they have helped create that solution.


Quiz Star
Web-based utility for creating quizzes that can be taken online.
- Manage classes and quizzes- Attach multimedia files to questions
- Make quizzes in multiple languages
- Access from any Internet-connected computer
- Allow students to complete and review.

SurveyShare

- SurveyShare is a web site that lets you design and conduct online surveys. Your surveys and response data are hosted on our secure servers.

- Each survey is given a unique web address (URL) where respondents can take the survey. - You can use SurveyShare to email this web address to your respondents, or you can distribute the URL yourself.

- Asrespondents complete your survey, members at any level can access the collected results in real-time. Subscription members can also examine the individual responses. - SurveyShare provides cross-tabulation options as well as customizable charts and graphs to help you analyze your data.

- For more sophisticated analyses, subscription members can download survey data and examine it with your favorite statistics tools or spreadsheet software.

WebQuest
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web
•Information comes from Internet resources
•It facilitates transformation of information into a newly constructed, assimilated understanding
•Integrates a number of research supported strategies.

Scavenger Hunts
Pupils divided into teams. Set a time to find as many things as possible on the list. The team with the most items from the list at the end of that time wins. Pupils are supposed to get information from internet.

Easy Test MakerEasyTestMaker is a FREE online test generator to help you create your tests. With Easy Test Maker you can create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false questions all on the same test. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections.


Virtual Field Trips
- Field trips expand children's learning through active hands-on experience with the rich resources of the local community.
- Field trips increase student knowledge and understanding of a subject and add realism to the topic of study.

2008年9月17日 星期三